


Widdle Wuna

by Worlds_First_Ghost



Series: Widdle Wouds [2]
Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Blood, Bodily Fluids, Breastfeeding, Cannibalism, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Coprophagia, Diapers, Drug Withdrawal, Family, Gen, Infantilism, Non-Sexual Age Play, Parasites, Psychological Horror, Scat, Violence, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-08-22 23:05:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8304673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Worlds_First_Ghost/pseuds/Worlds_First_Ghost
Summary: Lori finds another strange surprise in Lincoln's abandoned room.





	1. A New Morning

Lori glared at her watch impatiently before looking around the quiet, empty living room. Even though she only had three hours of sleep, she still managed to be the first one downstairs; mostly thanks to several cups of coffee. Everyone else was lucky enough to have a full night’s sleep, yet she was the only one who was responsible enough to finish her morning routine and be ready to start the day. She massaged her sore, darkened eyelids with her fingertips, praying that her sisters will be downstairs soon so that she can get this morning over with. Soon enough, though, the sound of rapid, clomping footsteps rumbled down the stairs and Lynn soon appeared triumphantly in the living room.

“Boo yeah! First one down!” Lynn cheered before she noticed Lori staring at her disapprovingly from the couch.

“Not quite, twerp,” Lori said as she rolled her eyes. “Now sit down while we wait for the others.”

With a huff, Lynn sulked over to an empty armchair just as Lana and Lisa began trudging down the stairs. Luan, Lola, and Leni straggled behind them shortly afterwards. As everyone assembled in the living room, Lori began counting heads to see if everyone was accounted for.

“We’re still missing people,” she grumbled. “Where’s Lucy?”

“I’m here,” Lucy’s voice appeared from behind the couch, eliciting yelps from several of the sisters. “I’ve been here almost as long as you, Lori. Also, by the way Lynn, you were actually the third one downstairs.”

“Oh come on!” Lynn cried as she crossed her arms.

“All right, enough,” said Lori. “Who else are we missing?”

“I think all we’re missing is Luna,” Luan spoke up. “And… Lincoln.”

An uncomfortable silence washed over the room at the mention of the second name. The sisters all exchanged nervous glances as they remembered how much grief the family had been put through due to one eleven year old boy. Lori looked over at Lisa, who only gave her a brief, acknowledging gaze before returning her attention to her clipboard. Only the two of them knew of the events that transpired during the night, of how Lori finally ended the nightmare that plagued the Loud House. Lori suppressed a shudder as she imagined Lincoln’s corpse still lying in the crib, drained of all color and reeking of stale feces. Though, the humid, bacteria-ridden environment of the bedroom no doubt sped up the process of decomposition, so she could only try and visualize the ways in which death had distorted and decayed her brother’s body. The worms in his intestines wouldn’t help matters either; they’d have already begun consuming him from within and laying their eggs all across his pale, rotting flesh. Lori knew that mess wasn’t going to be easy to dispose of, which is why she planned to return home immediately after dropping everyone off from school so she could dedicate the whole day to eliminating all traces of Lincoln’s body. She didn’t feel that many questions would be asked about it; nobody seemed to care about Lily’s disappearance, after all.

“All right,” Lori said, breaking the silence. “I’ll go upstairs and grab them.”

Lori went upstairs and looked down the hall to find that the door to Luna and Luan’s room was closed, causing her to pinch the bridge of her nose. Luna was always one of the last ones to wake up, but sleeping in for this long was unacceptable. Filled with the intent of giving her a thorough chewing out, Lori stomped over to the room and threw the door open only to find that nobody was inside. Confused, she glanced over her shoulder towards the bathroom, which was similarly empty. It felt strange to believe that Luna would be hiding in one of the other bedrooms, but Lori knew that she had to be upstairs somewhere.

“Luna?” Lori called out. “Where are you?”

A muffled thump came from the end of the hall, seemingly in reply to her calls. Lori spun around and stared down the hallway and her eyes gravitated to the singular door at the very end, Lincoln’s room. The faint stains and crayon markings that marred the door were enough to make Lori’s skin crawl as memories from last night started flooding her mind, but there was one small detail that made her heart freeze within her chest.

The door was slightly ajar.

She was absolutely certain that she closed the door completely when she left in order to minimize the chance that someone would see what was inside. However, Lori wasn’t so much concerned about that as much as she was worried that whoever opened the door was still inside the room. Swallowing the anxiety and fear that had collected in her throat, Lori cautiously made her way towards the door and gently pushed it all the way open. The smell inside was worse than she imagined and caused her to gag reflexively and violently. The underlying odor of urine and feces was already expected, but her nostrils were not prepared for the rank stench of rancid flesh and other byproducts of decay. Lori pulled her tank top over her nose as she approached the crib and nearly gagged again at the sight within. Lincoln’s body was nowhere to be found. Instead, a large puddle of putrefied bodily fluids stained the sheets where his corpse once was. The fluorescent bodies of hundreds of tiny, white worms and maggots shone in the darkness of the room as they squirmed helplessly around the ring of the puddle while several others lay drowned in the middle of it.

“Hi Lowi,” a voice emerged from behind the crib.

Lori screamed and shot backwards towards the door, gripping the doorframe tightly as her heart rattled inside her ribcage. The unknown voice gave way to giggling as a large, shadowy form crawled out from behind the crib and plodded towards Lori. As the light from the hallway gradually dispelled the darkness around the figure, Lori’s entire body chilled as she recognized who it was.

“L-Luna?” Even though the voice passed through her own lips, Lori was slightly shaken that she didn’t recognize it as her own. It came out strangled and whispered, less like an actual word and more like an exhaled breath of air.

“Dat’s me, dude!” Luna’s raspy voice answered. Her smiling face, still adorned with the crisscross scabs and scars from her unfortunate encounter with Lincoln a week ago, glowed distinctly against the shadows of the room. She crawled about the room aimlessly while continuing to giggle. Lori fought the urge to faint as she laid eyes on the plush, white diaper that covered Luna’s waggling butt. This couldn’t be happening, she thought. This must be a fever dream brought on by too little sleep.

“D-did you see Lincoln in here at all?” Lori asked, each word being forced through her constricted throat and out of her mouth. “Where is he, Luna?”

Luna casted a glance over her shoulder and wiggled her diapered behind in reply. She smiled widely, exposing two rows of teeth that were flecked with bits of dried, rust-colored blood. “Wincoln’s not hewe anymore. I’m the baby now, dude.”

Lori wiped the cold sweat that had collected on her forehead. Her knees began to wobble underneath her and she clamped her free hand to the door frame to avoid falling down. All sense of matter drained from her head, making it hard to keep it upright and leaving her vision blurry. She felt so detached from everything around her that she didn’t even hear the pitter-patter of tiny footsteps rapidly approaching from behind her.

“Heaven help us.”

The unexpected voice shocked Lori from her daze and she tightened her grip on the doorframe. She shakily turned her head to see that Lisa was standing beside her. Behind her glasses, the young girl's eyes were uncharacteristically wide as she stared uneasily at Luna. Luna returned her sisters’ stares with an oblivious grin as she ceased her crawling and sat down on the floor. The crinkling of the diaper pressing against the carpet was combined with the mushy, squishing sound of both solid and liquid waste being crushed underneath Luna's ass.

“It is contagious,” Lisa whispered.


	2. Struggles

>Much to Lori's horror, "Widdle Wuna" was accepted into the family with open, albeit mildly disgusted, arms.  
>She desperately tried to explain the situation to the rest of the family and get them to see reason, but they would only ever roll their eyes or laugh as if she were crazy.  
>None of them seemed to recognize the names "Lincoln" or "Lily" when she brought them up. To them, it was as if they had never existed.  
>"Besides," Lynn had said to her one day while playing handball against the side of the house. "How would Luna be able to eat a whole body in just one night? I think you're letting all this stress get to ya, sis."  
>It was only with Lisa whom Lori could confide, since she remained the only other person who knew the truth. The two of them would often spend time in Lisa's room, where the younger girl would tirelessly research on what she tentatively called "Widdle Baby Syndrome."  
>"They literally won't believe a word I tell them, Lisa," Lori said with her face buried in her hands. "You should try talking to them. You're so smart, there's no way they'd think you're making things up."  
>"Negative," Lisa replied as she scribbled down a series of incomprehensible notes on her chalkboard. "Until I'm able to find a sound explanation for the cause of both Lincoln and Luna's behavior, my pleas for reason would go over just as well as yours."  
>"Why don't you just show them Lily's arm?" Lori asked. "That's literal physical proof of her existence!"  
>Lisa shook her head and sighed. "Lori, even if that worked, Luna's only been exhibiting this behavior for less than a day now. I still require much more research on her if I want to test any potential hypotheses."  
>"So what are you saying?" Lori asked, anger beginning to rise in her voice. "I'm supposed to just pretend like everything's normal until you're finished with your damn experiments?"  
>Lisa shrugged and offered a small smile. "If you could procure me some fecal samples from Luna, it might expedite my studies."  
>And so, Lori treated Luna with the same kind of begrudging patience she previously bestowed onto Lincoln. Every passing day produced more and more rage and bile within her every time she found herself changing Luna's diaper, giving her a bath, or struggling to get her to eat her baby food during meals.  
>One day, during a rare moment of free time, Lori was in a state of semi-consciousness on the couch. Too tired to even use her phone, she was simply savoring the opportunity to enjoy some well-deserved relaxation.  
>The atmosphere of bliss was shattered instantly by the sound of Luna's plush diaper crinkling as she crawled towards the couch. Lori didn't even bother trying to hide her groans of dismay as Luna clambered upon the couch and immediately began tugging on Lori's tank top.  
>"Baby tursty, Lowi!" Luna whined. The way her raspy voice struggled to speak in baby talk grated on Lori's ears. "Baby wants miwkies!"  
>"Fuck off, Luna," Lori grumbled incoherently. "Please, I'm too tired. Go ask someone else."  
>Luna made several grunts of disapproval as her fumbling hands pulled up the tank top and unhooked Lori's bra with little resistance. "No! Baby wants Lowi's miwkies NOW!"  
>Lori swung her arm lethargically and ineffectively as Luna grabbed hold of Lori's breast and fastened her mouth onto the nipple.  
>Lori made a low, distressed moan as she stared blankly at Luna sucking feverishly and roughly on her nipple. She winced as Luna's teeth began painfully grazing and gnawing at her sensitive skin in an attempt to spur on the flow of milk.  
>Not once had Lori been forced to breastfeed Lincoln back when he was alive, so it came as a surprising, unfamiliar feeling when the first dribbles of liquid finally came forth from her pricked, sore nipple.  
>Luna elicited a muffled, excited moan as she happily lapped up the warm, slightly acidic milk. Lori, however, continued to stare at her sister with deadened, vacant eyes, all emotion having been drained from her being.  
>The sound of Luna's messy, greedy suckling echoed within her mind as feelings of anger and distress continued to linger out of reach for her feeble grasp.  
>In Luna's excitement, she bit down on Lori's nipple, her teeth nearly puncturing the skin. A jolt of pain coursed through Lori's body and the resulting adrenaline rush shocked her back into a state of full awareness. Her hollow gaze tempered into a potent glare brimming with disgust as Luna continued her business as if nothing had happened.  
>Gritting her teeth, Lori smacked Luna's head with the side of her hand and took the opportunity to jump off the couch as soon as Luna's mouth left her breast.  
>Luna immediately started wailing and stuck her arms out towards Lori. "Baby want more miwkies!"  
>Lori's face screwed up into a repulsed scowl before she turned around and began speed-walking away from the bawling teen baby.  
>She could only pray that Lisa finished with whatever she was doing soon.


	3. Shakes in the Night

>The Loud family had only been living with Widdle Wuna for about a week before she began displaying strange behavior. (Stranger than usual, that is.)  
>Over the past two days, she started acting irritable whenever people tried to interact with her, often trying to bite them if they got too close. Leni, who was normally more than happy to spend time with her “baby” sister, refused to play with Luna after she had nearly crushed her index finger with her jaws.  
>She also lost much of her appetite. While this relieved the family at first since it meant there were fewer diapers to change, it became a matter of concern as the color gradually drained from her face and she lost more and more weight.  
>To make matters worse, whenever she did require a diaper change, it would always be full of noxious, liquid sludge devoid of all solid matter. Her urine was also pungent and amber from dehydration, since she refused to drink fluids as well.  
>Nights became more restless since Luna could never seem to fall asleep and would always cry loud enough to wake the entire household. Those who went in her room to check on her would frequently find her trembling body drenched in cold, clammy sweat, and often with a messy diaper.  
>The family resolved to take her to the doctor, but since every pediatrician within the Detroit city limit refused to see her based on their previous experience with Widdle Wincoln, she had to be driven up north to be treated by one who had never heard of the Loud family before.  
>Despite her protests, Lori was elected to be the one to drive Luna up there. Times like these made her resent being the only child in the family with a driver’s license.  
>As she parked the van in the hospital’s parking lot, Lori slowly got out and opened the van’s side door, all while mentally preparing herself to get Luna out of her car seat. Her teeth gritted in trepidation as she stared at the bulky contraption in the back seat.  
>This large hunk of plastic and metal resembled a purple baby’s car seat that had been scaled up to seat a teenager. Its frame creaked and groaned as Luna restlessly rocked back and forth within it.  
> “Baby need to make stinky, Lowi!” Luna grunted while rubbing her stomach. Lori ignored her as she wrenched the creaking safety bar out of the way and undid Luna’s seatbelt.  
>“You can do that once we get inside,” Lori told her. With a mighty heave, Lori lifted her teenage sister out of the van and began leading her into the hospital by the hand. Luna, however, insisted on dragging her feet and began to cry.  
>“No!” Luna shouted, attracting some confused stares from onlookers that began to notice the diapered teen. “Baby gonna make poo poo now!”  
>All the muscles in Luna’s body clenched up as a gush of liquid splashed against the backside of her diaper. Lori could only look on in mortification as the area covering Luna’s ass began to sag down to her thighs and shifted in color from white to dark brown. Several of the onlookers turned away in fear and disgust at the spectacle while Lori smothered the urge to run into traffic at this moment.  
>After rushing Luna inside the hospital and changing her into a new diaper within one of the restrooms, Lori was finally able to get an appointment with the pediatrician. Once they entered the office, the doctor looked on in utter bewilderment as Lori hoisted Luna onto the examination table.  
>“Are you serious?” the doctor asked, clearly unamused by the teenage baby that was currently dangling her legs off the table. “You do realize this is a pediatrician’s office, right?”  
>Lori felt her face grow hot with shame as she grappled with a response. Her words exited hollow and brittle from her mouth. “S-sorry… she won’t go anywhere else. Please, just have a look at her.”  
>The doctor sighed and approached Luna with a suspicious eye. As he lifted up her shirt and placed his stethoscope on her bare chest, Luna made a sensual moan that caused him to reel back in shock. Shortly afterwards, the sound of liquid hissing and spattering against a confined surface broke the silence of the office.  
>“Cold touch!” Luna said while giggling. “Cold make baby pee pee!”  
>Ignoring the little bit of himself on the inside that had died at that point, the doctor continued with the examination. He concluded that Luna was exhibiting early signs of drug withdrawals, but wasn’t entirely sure which substances she was withdrawing from.  
>Lori weakly nodded in response, but realized that it made sense since Luna had not gone out or been up to any kind of teenage revelry ever since her “transformation.” In a way, she had to admire Luna’s commitment to avoiding drugs in order to keep up this act.  
>The doctor assured Lori that the symptoms will gradually diminish as long as Luna doesn’t start using drugs again. He only recommended that she and her family keep an eye out on her before telling them to get out of his office immediately.  
>Lori hustled out of the hospital as fast as she could in order to avoid the disapproving stares people shot towards her and Luna. It was only after Lori had strapped Luna back into her car seat and started the engine that she remembered that Luna’s diaper was still soaked with pee.  
>She’ll just have to wait until they were home, Lori thought as she drove out of the parking lot, her fingers clenched around the steering wheel in deep-seated resentment. She didn’t want to be here anymore, she didn’t want to be anywhere out in public with that monster.  
>Besides, it wouldn't hurt to let her suffer for a just a little while. Just let her sit in her own piss until they get home. It wouldn't be half as bad as the torment she put everyone else through, Lori thought with a hint of a smirk on her face.


	4. In Memoriam

>It was a brisk September afternoon when the Loud family was notified that Aunt Ruth had been found dead in her home.  
>When Rita heard that her dear aunt had passed away, she became near-inconsolable and spent the few following days alone inside her bedroom. Everyone else extended their sympathies towards her, but they weren’t particularly saddened by the news itself; none of them could honestly say that they’d be missing those regular, miserable visits to Aunt Ruth’s house.  
>It was only once the funeral was scheduled that a foreboding sense of dread plagued every member of the family. Day to day interactions were brief and marked with underlying tension. Conversation was practically nonexistent since everyone seemed reluctant to say a word to each other, but they all had an unspoken understanding as to why this was so. There was only one thing that dominated all their minds:  
>How was Widdle Wuna going to behave herself at the funeral?  
>Realizing the futility of trying to prevent Luna from wearing a diaper, the family desperately tried to coerce her into wearing clothes that would cover it up to no avail. Luna would simply rip and tear apart any clothing that she deemed wasn’t “for widdle babies wike me.”  
>At long last, they were able to get her into a pair of purple denim overalls, which she saw as a fair compromise. Once everyone else had gotten dressed and ready, they piled into the van and drove to the cemetery.  
>Since Aunt Ruth didn’t leave the house often enough to maintain many relationships, there weren’t many others at the funeral. The only other people in attendance were very close relatives on Rita’s side of the family and two or three of Ruth’s own acquaintances.  
>The Loud family could feel the cold, contemptuous stares of these relatives as they passed them by. Whispers drenched in bile and malice rang in their ears, which made a few of the older girls hunch their shoulders in shame as they slunk past the crowd.  
>“There’s that ‘baby’ of theirs,” a cousin muttered to his wife, his heavy coat muffling most of his words. “Remember that shitfest it pulled during last year’s Thanksgiving?”  
> “Sorta…” his wife responded, narrowing her gaze at Luna to get a better look at her. “Could’ve sworn that kid was a boy, though.”  
>The Louds ignored these remarks as best as they could and took their seats in the foldout chairs arranged in front of Aunt Ruth’s casket. Everyone was prepared to wait in silence for the service to start, except for Luna. Not two minutes had passed before she started bouncing in her seat restlessly and tugging on her mother’s arm.  
>“Momma! Me bowed!”  
>“Simmer down, Luna,” Rita said, her defeated tone reflecting the deep wrinkles of age and stress carved into her face. “The funeral’s about to begin.”  
>Just then, the priest shuffled over to the coffin and began clearing his throat as the scattered people in attendance started to fill the seats. He suppressed a sigh as he looked out upon the miserable turnout and dutifully began his speech.  
>“Friends and family of the departed, it is with great sorrow that we gather today to mourn the loss of our dear Ruth. What can anyone say about–”  
>“Bowing! Wuna wanna pway!”  
>Several heads turned in the direction of the abrupt cry. Luna crawled atop her seat and was preparing to stand up before Rita hurriedly grabbed her arm and forced her down.  
>“Luna, stop!” she whispered harshly, feeling the stares of everyone else raining down on her like arrows. “Please, just sit still.”  
>The priest stared at the scene in bewilderment and a tinge of fear before finally regaining his composure. “As I was saying, Ruth’s passing truly affects us all deeply. What words can fully articulate our sorrows and–”  
>“Wuna wants miwkies, Momma!”  
>This time, nearly everyone in the congression focused their attention on Luna, who was currently grappling and clawing at Rita’s concealed breasts.  
>Lynn turned to her older sister and delivered a swift strike with her forearm between Luna’s shoulders, helping to dislodge her from their mother. “Knock it off, you spaz!”  
>With a raspy screech, Luna spun around and threw both of her arms out against Lynn, knocking the smaller girl out of her chair and onto the grass below. A wave of frightful and confused murmuring rose from the crowd as Lynn got back to her feet, her face and dress smeared with dirt and blades of grass.  
>Lynn furiously gritted her teeth as her blood boiled in indignation. Every muscle in her body coiled up, poised to pounce on Luna and beat her into next week. However, as she slowly became aware of the multitude of widened eyes currently fixated on her, she reluctantly returned to her seat with a frustrated huff.  
>“Nyah nyah!” was Luna’s mocking reply, her tongue stuck out proudly at Lynn. Lynn kept her head firmly fixated away from Luna, her entire body trembling as she fought to restrain her rage.  
>The priest anxiously tugged at his collar as he waited for the agitated crowd to settle down. He desperately tried to ignore his clammy palms and frayed nerves as he struggled to remember where he left off.  
>“Well… ah, does anyone have any words they’d like to say on behalf of the departed?”  
>“I thought you’d never ask,” Lucy piped up from behind the coffin. The shaken priest let out a terrified scream and stumbled over to one of the empty seats to gather his bearings.  
>Lucy stepped out onto the front of the congression, a piece of paper held tightly in her hands. She had been patiently waiting for the opportunity to speak at a funeral ever since she learned how to talk, and now was finally her opportunity. It was almost enough to bring about a smile to her morose expression. Almost.  
>“I wrote this poem in memory of Aunt Ruth,” Lucy said before holding the sheet of paper to her face.  
>“Today we shall lay this soul to rest.  
>“She was a good person; one of the best.  
>“We all felt her presence and we all feel her loss  
>“As Ruth goes to meet the man on the cross.  
>“She's no longer with us, but she'll always be here  
>“In our thoughts and our hearts where we hold her de–”  
>“Baby make a stinky!” Luna cried out with a giggle.  
>People in the surrounding chairs immediately left their seats as soon as they caught wind of the rotten stench. The backside of Luna’s overalls bulged out as the ever-growing mound of shit packed within her diaper pushed out against it. Mushy, squishing noises gurgled forth as Luna bounced up and down in her seat anxiously, constantly churning her excrement underneath her soiled buttocks until it was semi-liquefied mush.  
>Mortified beyond words, Rita buried her face into her hands as she heaved out noiseless, tearless sobs. Lynn Sr. put a comforting hand on his wife’s back, though his own expression was equally haggard and he numbly stared out into space. The children echoed their parents’ shame as they uselessly stared at their giggling, infantile sister.  
>Lori, who had been silently stewing in humiliation ever since Luna’s first outburst, finally stood up and grabbed Luna forcefully by the wrist.  
>“Come on, you little monster,” Lori grumbled hatefully, “Let’s go get you changed.”  
>She began to drag Luna out of the seating area, but Luna dug her feet firmly into the grass. She flailed her arm frantically against Lori’s grip and screamed with a gravelly fury.  
>“No! Wuna no wanna go!” Luna screamed. Her muscles clenched up as she forced more shit out of her anus in an act of defiance. Lori swallowed down her urge to gag as she listened to the solid chunks of dung splashing about in the runny concoction that brewed within Luna’s diaper. Her eyes filled with tears as the acrid stench stung her nostrils.  
>Despite this, she maintained a firm grip on Luna. There was no way she’d back down so easily; she’s dealt with worse than this before. She was small-time compared to Lincoln...  
>Seeing that she couldn’t overpower Lori, Luna instead leaned forward and clamped her teeth down onto Lori’s hand. Lori drew her hand back with a yelp of pain before she started inspecting her skin for any damage Luna might’ve caused. The skin wasn’t broken, thank God, but she still figured she’d need to get a hold on some disinfectant right away.  
>With Lori distracted, Luna began crawling away on her hands and knees. As soon as Lori gave chase, Luna threw herself up onto two legs and broke out into an awkward, wavering run. Her limbs thrashed about as if she were an oversized toddler that was just learning to walk.  
>Lori lunged at Luna, but her hands only managed to get snagged in the butt-flap of Luna’s overalls. The buttons of the flap instantly broke off the fabric and Luna continued her wobbling gait as if nothing happened. Most of her swollen, messy diaper now hung out of the exposed flap like a sopping sack of mud that sloshed about as Luna toddled away from her aggressor.  
>Luna made her way to Aunt Ruth’s coffin and clambered up to the top of it. Several guests let out worried gasps as the coffin’s supports groaned and wobbled slightly underneath the teenage baby’s weight.  
>Lori got up from the ground, but froze before she could resume chasing Luna. Her horrified eyes locked onto Luna straddling the uneasy coffin. She became acutely aware of the silence that had washed over congression; it was as if everyone believed that the slightest noise would serve to knock the coffin over.  
>“Luna,” Lori said, her voice struggling to rise above that of a whisper. “Get down from there. Please.” She slowly placed one foot forward, followed by the other one. The grass hardly crunched underneath her painfully ginger footsteps.  
>Luna, however, was not to be calmed down so easily. As Lori steadily advanced toward her, she placed both of her feet atop the coffin and shakily rose up to her full height in order to appear larger. The wooden supports continued to creak and bend underneath her.  
>A sharp crack cut through the air. Before anyone could react, one of the center beams split down the middle and the rest of the supports instantly gave way and crumbled. Luna was thrown off balance and fell backwards while the coffin tumbled out in the opposite direction, landing upon the grass with a deafening thud as its hinges snapped open.  
>The corpse of Aunt Ruth unceremoniously spilled out of the open casket. Somebody in the back row collapsed, causing several folding chairs to fall into each other in a thunderous racket. Rita screamed in anguish amidst the chaos while the rest of the Loud family could only stare in silence, their faces painted with varying shades of horror and dread.  
>As everyone looked upon the glazed eyes of the cadaver, its clammy, sickly green flesh marred with multitudes of feline-shaped teeth marks, they realized in that moment why the funeral had been closed-casket. Lucy loomed over the carcass and heaved a trembling sigh. Her head filled with a flurry of mixed emotions as she stared actual death in the face for the first time, all while lamenting the dashed chances to finish her poem.  
>Lori weakly gawked at Aunt Ruth’s bloated, contorted body before turning her gaze to the simmering disgust and anger of all the guests. Their cries of terror and outraged exclamations comprised the white noise that buzzed in Lori’s ears. This chaotic din was still more preferable to the gleeful saccharine giggling that slowly bubbled to the top of this cacophony. All of Lori’s muscles stiffened as she trepidly turned to its source.  
>Luna was behind the remaining wreckage, laughing obliviously as she rolled about on the grass. She was covered head to toe in what Lori assumed to be mud, but she soon realized her mistake upon closer inspection. The revelation nearly caused her to vomit the contents of her already empty and sickened stomach.  
>The impact of her fall caused her overstuffed diaper to rip apart once it hit the ground. The surrounding area of her landing was now a rancid, sludgy morass of excrement. Luna appeared to ignore all of this as she played about in her own filth, smearing runny, greasy shit all over herself.  
>“Lowi! Lowi!” Luna burbled out. “Wuna’s diapee not heavy anymowe! Wuna weady to go home now!”  
>Lori closed her eyes to shield herself from all the madness. She envied Aunt Ruth in this moment, for being the only one here not to be able to experience any of this.


	5. Hypothesis

>All of the Louds were completely silent during the drive home from the funeral. Once inside their home, Leni escorted Widdle Wuna by the hand to change her filthy diaper while the rest of the family solemnly dispersed throughout the house. Luna seemed to be the only one in good spirits, wearing an oblivious smile while her older sister kept her at arm’s reach.  
>Lori straggled behind the rest of her family. She was completely fixated on her hand and the area where Luna bit it. Staring at the small, shallow bite marks on her skin made her flesh crawl with disgust.  
>Knowing how much of a disease-ridden hole Luna’s mouth was, Lori could only imagine the vast number of bacteria strains left by Luna’s saliva that still lingered on her skin. Luna was always putting things into her mouth, most of which having no business going in there. Dirt, bugs, and earthworms were her favorite things to eat for some reason, which was why she wasn’t allowed to be outside unattended anymore. She also liked to suck and gnaw on inedible things like coins, socks, and things she found in the trash can.  
>Before she was able to reach the bathroom to wash her hand, she felt something tug on the hem of her tank top. She looked down to find Lisa staring up at her with a typical blank expression.  
>“Lori, could you join me in my dormitory?” Lisa asked. “I have to speak with you.”  
>“In a moment, Lisa,” Lori said. “Let me wash my hands first.”  
>Lisa held up a small bottle of hand sanitizer in response. “Humor me for a moment, please?”  
>Lori looked at Lisa with a scrutinizing expression, but shrugged her shoulders and decided to follow her into the bedroom. After closing the door behind her, Lisa pointed to her bed as a silent instruction to sit down. Lori did so and Lisa soon clambered on top of the bed right beside her.  
>Lisa then held Lori’s bitten hand and began examining the bite marks carefully, running her tiny fingers along the skin and humming thoughtfully to herself. After a few seconds of this, she handed Lori the hand sanitizer and hopped off the bed before shuffling over to her blackboard. In addition to the scientific jargon and mathematical formulas scrawled upon it, it also contained some crude doodles meant to resemble humans.  
>Lori gazed at the blackboard as she applied the sanitizer to her hand, trying in vain to at least make sense of what those drawings were meant to convey. She was at last able to discern that Lisa had drawn four figures that seemed to represent four members of their own family. Two of the drawings had large “X”s drawn over them, which Lori realized must be Lily and Lincoln. Another drawing resembling Luna was drawn beside these two, and at the last one seemed to be Lori herself.  
>“Lisa, what is all that?” Lori asked. It was a little disconcerting to be lumped alongside the rest of the “babies.”  
>“Just part of my studies,” Lisa explained. “I’m researching a new hypothesis regarding the cause of Lincoln and Luna’s aberrant behavior. Recall that I’ve explained before that Lincoln’s condition was primarily brought upon by unresolved stress, and that reverting to the mental state of an infant was a form of escapism meant to achieve that end. This does not seem to apply to Luna, since she seemed to lead a comparatively stress-free lifestyle, so there must be another factor at play here.  
>“Do you remember that one night a month ago when Lincoln assaulted Luna and injured her face so badly that those scars remained for several days? The cellular matter, and potential waste material, underneath Lincoln’s fingernails must have gone into Luna’s bloodstream after he scratched her face. I realize this may sound ludicrous, but what if this condition is able to transfer between individuals via blood?”  
>“That can't be right,” Lori objected. “Luna was still normal even after all that.”  
>“Correct. In fact, she did not immediately begin showing symptoms until Lincoln had already been exterminated. Therefore, the infection must lie dormant within the body and only becomes active once certain environmental conditions are satisfied. I’ve told you before that the motivations behind Lincoln murdering Lily was that the family dynamic would be thrown off balance if more than one baby were in the house at the same time. This, I believe, is the condition that must be fulfilled for the disease to take effect. Lincoln’s death and Luna’s subsequent consumption of his flesh was the catalyst needed to trigger the transformation.”  
>A cold shudder rattled Lori’s spine as Lisa’s words sank into her. She clutched her hand tightly while her fingertips tenderly rubbed the indents left by Luna’s teeth. If any of what Lisa said was true, she was dangerously close to becoming a jabbering, shitting invalid like Luna and Lincoln. Her mind, her very sanity, would have been extinguished, leaving behind only a mentally defective teenage baby that would be scorned and derided by the rest of the family.  
>The mere thought caused her head to go light and she fell backwards onto the bed. A blurry fog slowly immersed every object in the room. The ceiling began to liquefy and ooze down the walls. Shadows crept along the edges of her peripherals and hoped to consume her entire field of vision before she found Lisa instantly looming over her.  
>“Snap out of it, Lori!” Lisa shouted while furiously tugging on the collar of her sister’s tank top.  
>Lori released an abrupt, high-pitched sob as Lisa shook her back to reality. It would be so easy to break down into tears right now, but she swallowed those feelings and forced them down her throat. Showing weakness now would only show that Luna has won.  
>“So you're saying that I was literally so close,” Lori squeaked out. “Close to becoming like them. You already have me drawn on the board alongside them. Am I already a liability then?”  
>“Preposterous,” Lisa scoffed. “You play an entirely separate role in my research. Aside from me, you are the only one that is cognizant of Lily and Lincoln’s existence. You don’t blindly assume that the family’s baby is the same as it has always been. Studying your interactions with the subject may lead to new breakthroughs in my hypotheses.”  
>Lori massaged her temples as her eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t know how much more of that I can take, Lisa. Dealing with these… things is like literally hell on Earth.”  
>“If you truly feel that way, I do suppose ending her life is always a viable option. I’m sure the rest of our family will be relieved by her sudden disappearance. Lord knows I won’t miss her.”  
>Lori crossed her arms and clutched them tightly as an uneasy tremor shook her from within. How could this four year old talk about murder so casually? “I… I couldn’t do that, Lisa.”  
>“Oh, but killing Lincoln was no trouble at all, was it?”  
>Lori winced. “It’s not like that. Like… I don’t feel entirely right with what I did. I’m saying that I couldn’t bring myself to do it again.”  
>“You don’t need to fabricate a display of false morality in front of me, Lori. What you did to Lincoln was entirely of your own volition. You can say whatever you want to me, but I know that once you’ve been pushed to your limit, nothing is going to stop you from doing the same to Luna.”  
>Lori struggled desperately to prevent her shame from appearing on her face. Letting Lisa know that her words were getting to her would only prove her point. The two sisters stared wordlessly at each other before a knock on the door shattered the silence.  
>Lisa slowly opened the door to reveal Luan and Lynn standing behind it. Before Lisa could ask what they wanted, the two of them easily pushed past her and stood in front of Lori. Concerned expressions were deeply engraved on their faces.  
>“Excuse me, but the two of you are trespassing in my private quarters!” Lisa cried out indignantly.  
>“We want to talk to you, Lori,” Luan said, ignoring Lisa entirely.  
>“Yeah,” Lynn chimed in. “We’ve noticed you’ve been hanging out with Lisa for a long time now. The rest of us barely even see you anymore. What’s going on?”  
>Lori rested her face in the palm of her hand. She kneaded her skull in frustration as she addressed her nosy sisters. “I’ve literally told you like a hundred times already why. It’s not my fault you won’t believe me.”  
>Lynn snorted. “What? You’re still on about these make-believe siblings that nobody but you and Lisa have ever heard of?”  
>“I get you're feeling ‘brothered’ by this, but this is ridiculous!” Luan quipped before laughing heartily.  
>“Am I literally going insane?” Lori yelled. She curled her fingers against her face, ignoring the sting of her fingernails digging into her skin. “How can none of you remember them!? Literally eleven years of our history has just vanished from your brains!”  
>“Yeah, eleven years, and yet I don’t see any proof of any of it,” Luan said. Her braces glinted as her lips curled into a condescending grin.  
>“You want proof!?” Lori asked with a wild, angry flash in her eyes. The slight hitch of her throat caused her voice to unexpectedly raise half an octave. “Go look through some of Lisa’s stuff over there! I’m sure that’ll be all the damn proof you need!”  
>Lisa’s face immediately blanched. Her pupils looked like pinpricks from behind her glasses. Luan glanced between Lori and Lisa with a curious glean in her eye before turning towards Lisa’s cabinets.  
>“Keep away from there!” Lisa cried out in a panic. “There are delicate chemicals and personal possessions you need not be privy to in those cabinets!”  
>Lisa attempted to lunge at her older sister, but was yanked back by the shirt collar. Lynn smirked as she held the squirming child firmly in her grasp.  
>“What’s wrong, sis?” Luan asked as she rifled through drawers and moved aside empty flasks and beakers. “You sound like you’re hiding something.”  
>At the end of her search, she opened a bottom drawer containing a small lunchbox sitting atop a shallow bed of ice. Lori and Lisa both gazed in apprehension as Luan pulled out the container, their shared knowledge of the horror lying within chilling their blood to ice.  
>Just as Luan was about to open the box, a penetrating wail sliced through the room. All eyes fearfully turned towards the wall that adjoined the room that was formerly the linen closet. It was coming from the baby’s room.  
>With everyone distracted, Lisa wrenched herself free from Lynn’s grip. Her stubby legs were then able to propel her upwards just high enough to snag the lunchbox out of Luan’s slack hands. Holding the frigid container to her chest tightly, she angrily pointed to the door.  
>“Disperse! All of you! Luna clearly needs your assistance and you all need to leave now!”  
>Lynn groaned in deep frustration as she shuffled out the door. Luan followed her close by, but threw Lisa a distrustful glare just as she exited. Lisa turned her gaze back to Lori, who flinched once she noticed the venom pooling in her little sister’s eyes.  
>“That goes for you as well, Judas Iscariot,” Lisa growled. “Out!”  
>Dumbfounded, Lori shuffled out of the room, the resounding slam of the door causing her muscles to tense up. She began to wonder if Lisa knew more than she was letting on about this whole mess. Why was she so intent on keeping Lily’s arm a secret? Lisa may have told her that she had a larger role to play in all this, but now she felt like little more than a lab rat being studied in some horrible experiment.  
>Rubbing a heavy hand against the right side of her face, she tried to ignore these nagging thoughts as she joined her sisters outside of Luna’s room. The shield of the door did little to deafen the garbled wails that continued to pulsate from within.  
>Lynn extended a brave, reluctant hand to open the door. The sulfurous stench that then billowed out of the room caused her and Luan to erupt into furious coughing fits. Lori groaned and calmly plugged her nose. The fact that she was so accustomed to these types of smells disgusted her more than the odor itself.  
>It was only until Lori flipped on the light switch and exposed the scene within that she realized that the raspy, throaty cries were actually Luna’s croaks of high-pitched laughter. The teenaged baby was seated upon the floor with her legs splayed out, completely in the nude. Her diaper was opened in front of her and smeared with a conglomerate of fresh feces and urine.  
>Luna looked up at her wide-eyed sisters and waved to them. Her entire hand was dripping with the sludge of her own waste, as was her chin and mouth. Her lips parted in a friendly grin, which exposed the numerous small, brown flecks lodged within the gaps of her teeth.  
>“Wuna found a new snack!” she giggled ecstatically. “Sissies want to shawe with Wuna?”  
>Lori felt sour vomit burn her throat as she forced herself to stay composed. Lynn, who was made of much sterner stuff, made no motion to gag, but still wore an expression of utter revulsion. Her mouth contorted into a jagged grimace and the whites of her eyes glimmered with slight terror.  
>Luan did not possess the same constitution as her sisters. Ochre-colored vomit promptly spewed from her mouth and splashed onto the floor in front of her. Lori and Lynn both stumbled backwards to avoid the spray of droplets in the air.  
>Luna watched the scene with sparkling, awestruck eyes. After Luan had voided all the contents of her stomach, Luna giggled and clapped her filthy hands.  
>“Wuan make dessert! Wuan make dessert!”


	6. Diaper Change

>In less than a month, Widdle Wuna’s unrelenting plague on the Loud House had reduced it to a den of despair.  
>Despite the fact that nobody remembered Lincoln at all, his residual presence still taxed the haggard and stressed minds of those who were unfortunate enough to interact with him. In their altered memories, however, all instances of his existence seemed to have been replaced with Luna, which made it appear as though she had been tormenting the house for much longer than she had actually been around.  
>Mr. and Mrs. Loud barely spoke anymore. Shame had sealed their lips and misery had tempered their hearts to stone. The rare occasions that they did speak only produced sharp outbursts of anguish and desolation. Trickles of noiseless tears usually followed, streaking across their wrinkled faces as their gazes hardened in a desperate attempt to shut themselves out from the world.  
>Leni and Luan didn’t smile as often as they used to. Lynn increasingly spent more time outside of the house in order to train at the local rec center, where she imagined her infantile sister as the punching bags that she ruthlessly thrashed. The twins rarely argued with each other anymore, and often found themselves seeking the company of their older sisters during this time of uncertainty. The only one who apparently saw no change in behavior was Lucy, but that was only because of her limited interactions with everyone else.  
>Lisa spent so much time within her bedroom that she practically lived in it. Nearly all contact between her and the other sisters was cut off, even with Lori. Ever since the incident a few days ago, Lisa had barred Lori from entering her room at all and would go out of her way to avoid talking to her whenever possible.  
>Without Lisa, Lori found herself hopelessly lacking a confidant. Nobody else was able to understand her struggles, so she was forced to keep them bottled up. They stewed and fermented within the deepest pits of her insides, slowly festering into a dark, pulsating ulcer that seemed to consume her from within.  
>In spite of this, Lori still took it upon herself to act as the solid foundation to keep her frustrated and disillusioned family from completely falling apart. In the absence of their parents, she was the sole authority figure in the house, so she felt that she owed it to everyone else to maintain any semblance of order she could scrounge up.  
>One day, Lori, Leni, and Luan were all silently watching television. The suffocating tension of the room kept them distracted from whatever was on the screen, but they all tried their best to feign an interest in it, regardless. Lack of communication was just one of the many problems afflicting the household; everyone knew what everyone else’s grievances were, but nobody seemed willing to actually speak up about them.  
>The uncomfortable silence was abruptly broken by an ear-splitting wail from upstairs. All three girls involuntarily jumped from both surprise and an innate dread as recognition immediately sunk into them. Luna’s piercing cries were about as familiar as the everyday sounds of an alarm clock or the doorbell at this point, but always served as a forecast for something unpleasant or horrifying that was yet to come.  
>The three girls looked warily at each other through narrowed eyes. Self-preservation and apprehension took hold of them as they immediately began formulating excuses to get out of going upstairs.  
>“I already had to deal with her during breakfast today,” Luan started. “One of you should go check on her.”  
>“Well, like, it’s not going to be me!” Leni said. “Lori should go because she’s like our new mommy and all.”  
>“What?! Leni, I’m not–” Lori began, but fell silent and heaved a frustrated sigh as she cupped her thumb and index finger around the base of her brow. “Look, none of us want to be the one to go up there. We might as well solve this fairly, okay?”  
>Leni and Luan nodded in understanding, but exchanged a brief, unsure glance between each other. Lori raised her fist, which the other two mimicked.  
>“Rock, Paper, Scissors, Go!”  
>Three hands met together in a loose circle. Lori and Leni’s open palms met side by side against Luan’s closed fist.  
>“Oh no! Rock crumples paper!” Leni whined. “I lost!”  
>“No, Leni,” Lori said, trying to reign in the annoyance in her voice. “You literally have it backwards. We’re both safe. Luan’s the one who lost.”  
>Luan glared at Lori. A cold, silent hatred simmered in the whites of her eyes. Lori returned her stare and crossed her arms over her chest. Her decision would not be swayed.  
>Begrudgingly, Luan stomped upstairs and swung open Luna’s bedroom door. The stagnant odor of curdling urine seeped from the walls and caused the contents of her stomach to churn vigorously. Fortunately, she was able to refrain from vomiting this time. She cautiously advanced towards Luna, who was still screaming her head off.  
>“Easy, easy Luna,” Luan said with a strained soothingness. “Water you crying about this time?” A weak smile tugged at the corners of her lips in response to her own pun, but it did little to stop Luna’s bawling.  
>“Baby make a pee pee!” Luna cried. “Baby need a diapee change!”  
>Luan groaned, but she was at least silently thankful that Luna only wet herself. Other than the residual reek of feces that had since soaked into the crib and carpet of the room, she couldn’t smell any shit on Luna herself.  
>With a great effort, Luna achingly pulled her older sister out of her crib. The larger girl lay against her shoulder in an awkward angle that Luan struggled to maintain with her trembling arms. She could feel the warmth of Luna’s piss-drenched diaper press up against her, and she could swear that Luna was pressing her hips against her on purpose. Luan’s legs shook as she danced her way over to the changing table, and Luna nearly tumbled out of her grasp on top of it.  
>Luan rubbed her sore arms before she undid the tabs of Luna’s diaper. The front of the soggy garment slumped open under its own weight, and Luan grimaced at the scene laid out before her.  
>Luna’s pubic hair, matted and slick with urine, covered almost her entire crotch in a gnarled, dark field. Nobody ever bothered groom her down there, so the hair was free to grow into an unruly mess that served as a magnet for Luna’s waste. A shallow puddle of amber piss rippled underneath her as it struggled to be absorbed into the oversaturated, bloated fabric of the diaper.  
>Luan advanced a trembling hand to remove the soiled diaper when a faint sound of splashing froze her movements. Luan watched wordlessly as the piss puddle sloshed about under a series of abrupt, brassy farts that sputtered out of Luna’s asshole. The gas soon grew louder and wetter in sound as a thin string of shit slithered its way out of her anus and coiled itself in the middle of the piss.  
>Luan immediately doubled over and began to dry-heave. Low, guttural gasps of air ravaged her throat and dried out her mouth, but her stomach thankfully refused to let loose any of its contents. Her noises of disgust apparently delighted Luna, who began to laugh giddily.  
>In the midst of her joy, she involuntarily expelled a narrow stream of urine. It arced through the air with a sharp whistle as it quickly dispelled into droplets, some of which happening to land in Luan’s eye.  
>Luan shouted in anguish as she started to furiously rub at her stinging eye. Her free eye meanwhile directed itself at Luna, shooting her a glare of unrestrained abhorrence.  
>“You gross little shit!” Luan spat out.  
>“Hey! You can’t say that, Wuan!” Luna screeched out in protest. “Dat’s a bad wowd!”  
>Luna thrashed her arms and legs in a rage-fueled tantrum, banging mercilessly against the changing table. Her large, adolescent-sized legs kicked outwards violently and one managed to catch the unaware Luan right under her jaw.  
>Luan’s teeth rattled against each other as the meaty leg knocked her off-balance. She flailed and spun around uncontrollably across the room until she finally tripped over herself and fell forwards. Her face slammed against the corner of Luna's crib with a sharp crack, knocking it over as she collapsed beside it.  
>The subsequent crash boomed throughout the bottom level of the house. In the living room, Lori immediately jumped off the couch before she ran up the stairs to see what happened. Several other members of the family were also alerted and ran alongside her, and soon everyone was crowded against each other in the hallway as they slowly funneled into Luna’s room.  
>Throaty, restless sobs softly emanated from the corner of the room. Luan lay beside the overturned crib in a shivering heap, her hands clasped over her face. Once she heard the footsteps of the others entering the room, she slowly rose into a kneeling position. Her eyes, stained red and glossy under a shroud of tears, stared at her family piteously as she lowered her hands.  
>A scream, possibly from one of the twins, ripped through the room. The bottom half of Luan’s face was painted red with fresh blood. More blood continually oozed forth from her mouth and dribbled onto the floor, where it collected into a sizeable puddle that had previously formed.  
>Luan curled her upper lip to expose a row of pink, inflamed gums that gushed out blood in the spots where teeth had previously been. One of her incisors dangled uselessly before the maw of her open mouth, suspended between the intact blood vessels and the twisted wire of her braces.  
>The rest of her teeth, along with frayed bits of metal, were scattered across the floor. The two largest incisors rested on the edge of the puddle of blood, the gnarled veins clinging to their roots appearing as tangled as the metal wire that connected them to each other.  
>While most of the family stormed over to offer aid to Luan, Lori found herself rooted in place. She directed her gaze to Luna, who still sat in her piss and shit filled diaper atop the changing table. Luna returned her gaze, which caused her to stiffen as an immense loathing began to creep over her.  
>Luna’s eyes looked upon Lori unassumingly as her mouth curled into an impish smile. Lori’s eyelids twitched at the lack of remorse in Luna’s expression. It was almost as if she fully knew what she had just done.  
>After about three seconds, Lori still found herself staring into those same eyes. They bulged from their sockets as the skin around them flushed from red to blue. Luna coughed and gasped frantically as her windpipe was crushed underneath Lori’s claw-like hands. Lori stared at her helpless victim with no emotion. Her own eyes were cold and intent with purpose; she knew that this had to be done.  
>She wouldn’t accomplish her goal, however, as the family had worked quickly to dislodge her grip from Luna’s throat. Shaken back into reality, Lori’s determined expression quickly melted underneath a torrent of hot tears that streamed down her face. As the rest of her family dispersed to tend to both Luan and Luna, she huddled dejectedly beside the doorway with her knees curled up to her chin. Just as she was about to let the crushing weight of both loneliness and helplessness consume her, she noticed a small figure enter from the corner of her blurred vision.  
>Lori hastily rubbed her eyes and Lisa soon came into full view. Lori cringed and averted her eyes, fully expecting Lisa to give some type of snide remark about how she had been right about her true nature all along.  
>She was surprised when she instead felt a small hand rest atop her knee. Lisa’s eyes radiated a soft, almost understanding look from behind her large glasses. Lori raised a quaking hand and set it atop Lisa’s own, all while futilely trying to blink away her tears.  
>The shallow hiccups of Lori’s stifled sobs were the only sounds in the otherwise silent exchange between the two. The grave understanding of what they both knew needed to be done eliminated the need for words.


	7. End

The evening sky darkened to black as the van pulled out of the driveway and drove down the dimly lit street. After weeks of hospitalization and very expensive reconstructive surgery, it was finally time for Luan to come back home. Everyone was more than willing to see this as a golden opportunity to get out of the house, but there was one matter that needed to be dealt with first: who was going to stay behind to watch “the baby?” In what came as a relieving surprise to the rest of the family, the issue was quickly resolved when both Lori and Lisa volunteered to stay while everyone else went to the hospital. This seemingly random act of charity went unquestioned, as everyone was too focused on getting into the van as fast as they could before either of them could change their minds.

The family’s absence had left the inside of the house as dark as the sky outside. The only source of light filtered from underneath the door to Lisa’s room, which was where the two sisters conspired. Lori sat on her four year old sister’s bed with her hands glued to her knees, silently watching Lisa hurriedly fly about every square inch of her room. Her tiny arms were overflowing with crumpled sheets of lab paper and vials full of sloshing chemicals. Every once in a while she’d hobble over to her blackboard to jot down a quick note or erase an incorrect formula, which she was somehow able to locate amidst the mess of chalk and dust smeared across the board.

“I still don’t know about this, Lisa,” Lori finally said.

Lisa gave Lori a brief glance over her shoulder before returning her attention to her blackboard. “Don’t give yourself up to hesitation now, Lori,” she said. She struggled to move her hand, which held a stubby piece of chalk, up towards the blackboard. “The crowning moment of action is upon us.” She punctuated her sentence by marking a large, white X over a doodle that crudely resembled Luna.

A shuddering sigh rolled out of Lori’s parted lips. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, I don’t think I can bring myself to do this, you know? It’s literally way too stressful.”

“Perhaps it would do you well to remember what you did to Lincoln all those nights ago. You did not experience uncertainly back then, correct?”

“I already told you, that was different. I wasn’t myself then, it literally felt as if I wasn’t thinking at all. This, on the other hand, is just so pre… premed…”

“Premeditated,” Lisa finished. “Yes, I suppose that is a reasonable reaction. Natural instincts often override human rationality at times. Still, I am 97.918% certain that if you keep your primary objective clear in your mind, you should have no trouble carrying out your duties. I should remind you that I am the one who is responsible for… cleaning up afterwards, if you will. Hopefully that knowledge will put you somewhat more at ease.”

Lori reluctantly nodded as she slowly slid off the bed. She rolled her shoulders backwards a few times to loosen some of her knotted muscles before wordlessly walking to the door and leaving the room.

“Godspeed, Lori,” Lisa said just before the door closed. There was no use trying to fight it; Lori knew that she was the only one able to take Luna out at this point. Although she didn’t doubt Lisa’s ability to dispose of the evidence afterwards, she was still much too small to carry out the actual assassination. Everyone else, of course, was either too blind or fearful to do anything about the danger they were all in, and they wouldn’t even suspect a thing after everything was done. That didn’t matter to Lori though, just as long as some semblance of normalcy returned to this house after tonight. With a brief, longing glance towards the shut door, Lori shook her head and turned to her right.

The cold, white glow of Luna’s door radiated dimly in the darkness. It was an odd color choice, given that the rest of the doors were brown, and Lori couldn’t help but feel uneasy whenever she looked at it. The paint job had been done shortly after Lincoln’s death, so “WIDDLE WINCOLN’S ROOM” was no longer written on it. Mr. Loud had actually quipped about how Luna must’ve spelled her name wrong when he painted over it. The only blemish on the otherwise flawless surface was a label created by the room’s new inhabitant: “WIDDLE WUNA’S ROOM.” The lines were crooked, as if the crayon was held within a fist, and letters like the R and N were written backwards. The handwriting was uncannily similar to Lincoln’s, the only difference being that it was purple instead of orange.

Lori forced her eyes downward, not wanting to dwell on that thought any further. She turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, unprepared for the torrent of thick, soupy air that washed over her. Poor ventilation at this end of the house, combined with the sole window being kept shut, had resulted in the room’s already nauseous stench to ferment into a dense brew that reeked of drain pipes and seawater. Lori, who was normally used to the many odors that Luna produced, could not help but plug her nose and erupt into a coughing fit as the humid fog enveloped her. The rancid air coated her tongue as soon as she opened her mouth, causing her guts to fold in on themselves as the acidity corroded her taste buds. Buckling under her weak knees, she clamped a hand over her mouth, feeling a wave of bitter vomit surge up her throat. Luckily, she was able to contain the flood of puke that rapidly began to fill her mouth, save for the trickles that seeped through the spaces between her fingers. With nowhere else to go, the bile drained back down her throat as she forced herself to swallow it all. Despite the intense burning in her tightening throat, she made sure that none of it would come back up.

Aside from Lori’s soft moans and the scattered drops of vomit hitting the carpet, the room was otherwise silent. Streaks of pale moonlight filtered through the circular window and helped bring the dismal surroundings into focus. There were precious few belongings in the room aside from some crusty-looking stuffed animals and plastic toys that were caked in dried saliva. The only familiar possession that Lori recognized was Luna’s guitar. Luna never played it, of course, but she could not bear to be separated from it. If anyone tried to take it away from her, she’d cry, kick, and even bash her head against the wall until the perpetrator set it back down. One concussion later, and the subject of the guitar soon became taboo around the household.

The carpet was a tie-dye of various stains, making it hard to determine what its original color was. One small stain at the foot of Luna’s crib was comparatively darker than the rest, and Lori recognized it from the day when Luan’s teeth were knocked out. The sight of her own sister’s blood made Lori’s overstrained stomach churn, but she was able to regain herself when she peered through the bars of the crib.

Luna lay within the crib with her back facing Lori. Snuffles and snorts rumbled from her nostrils and mouth, the only signs of life from her otherwise still body. Much like Lincoln before her, her body was a withered husk of what it used to be. A combination of her withdrawals and a diet of mushy vegetables and oatmeal had ravaged her body, making her look almost skeletal in appearance. Muscle mass had been all but eroded from her colorless limbs, which were marked by distended streaks of purple veins. Her developing breasts had receded back to her chest, and her once plump behind now looked deflated underneath the wrinkled, yellowed diaper she wore.

Lori rose up to her feet and leaned over the crib’s railing, staring at the pathetic creature within. Luna’s emaciated form surprisingly made her humanity more apparent in Lori’s eyes, which only served to strengthen her resolve. It now seemed only decent to end this horrible existence by giving Luna a proper mercy killing. Lori felt her heart turn to stone as she plunged her arms over the crib and clamped her hands around the sleeping girl’s neck.

Luna’s eyelids soon fluttered open and she immediately flew into a panic. Her bloodshot eyes bulged as she uselessly flailed her arms about. Lori winced as the bony limbs collided with her own, caught off guard by the amount of force Luna was able to muster. Luna putting up a fight was not something she had anticipated; Lincoln went out with almost no struggle, after all. As Lori stared at the animalistic determination in Luna’s eyes, though, she knew she had to finish this before the tables turned.

The crib’s railing jutted uncomfortably into Lori’s gut as she leaned forward, her arms trembling as she slowly shifted her weight onto them. She hoped that the added leverage would help her crush Luna’s throat faster, but as she lifted her feet from the ground and found herself awkwardly balanced atop the bar, she realized her mistake. The metal frame groaned under the combined weight of the two teenagers, and soon the entire crib fell apart with a ferocious clatter. Lori fell flat on her stomach, resting atop a pile of metal bars that jabbed her body at several angles. The clanging of metal against metal thundered in her ears as she struggled to get up to her feet. The din eventually gave way to a low, guttural growling that made Lori’s heart plummet. Luna stood atop the remaining rubble with her arms outstretched and her fingers curled like talons. Hot air burst from her nostrils and slick streams of drool dribbled past her lips as she took a bold step towards Lori. Unlike the day at the cemetery, there was no wavering at all in Luna’s stride; she was surprisingly in control of her balance.

“Not coow, dude,” Luna growled. “You can’t tweat a baby wike that.”

Luna reared an arm back and aimed a swipe at Lori’s face. Lori screamed as she dropped down to the floor, feeling the gust of the swing course through her hair. With her back facing the ground, she awkwardly began scuttling away from Luna on her hands and feet. She hoped she was moving towards the door, but she didn’t dare look over her shoulder to check where she was going; her gaze was completely glued to Luna’s filthy hands wildly cutting through the air. Her slick, brown-stained fingers were capped with yellow nails that gradually blackened at the tips. Small clouds of microscopic crusts and particles flew off from them every time Luna swung her arms. One lucky scratch was all it took to get that rotten shit under the skin, to spread the disease and turn Lori just like her.

The doorframe eventually encompassed Lori’s vision once she passed the threshold and into the hallway. Newfound optimism and hope produced a surge of hot adrenaline throughout her body, giving her just enough energy to propel herself backwards and widen the distance between herself and Luna. Scrambling to her feet, she stared into Luna’s bloodthirsty eyes and immediately began weighing her options before the gap between them was closed. Fighting her hand to hand was too risky and there was no use trying to tire her out; even if she hid in one of the rooms, Luna would no doubt wait until she came out. With her gaze constantly darting around the empty hallway to find something that could help her, Lori found her solution by looking past Luna and back into the room. From behind the ruined crib, the faint edge of Luna’s guitar poked out invitingly.

Luna was unwilling to let up on her assault, which forced Lori to duck and dodge while searching for an opportunity to get behind her. Eventually, she began to notice a pattern in Luna’s attacks: after every swing, she’d always take one step forward before striking again. Once Luna planted her foot down and reared her arm back, Lori took the opportunity by dodging inward just as Luna’s arm shot forward. Luna cried out in confusion, giving Lori enough time to slide past her skinny, greasy body and run toward her humid den. Luna spun around to find Lori already in the room with her hands on the guitar, causing her to screech in fury. With Luna running full bore back into the bedroom, Lori clenched her eyes shut and swung the guitar in a wide arc in front of her.

There was a fleshy crack and a subsequent thud as Luna hit the ground. Lori opened her eyes and cautiously watched as Luna remained on the ground for a few moments, until she finally forced herself onto her hands and knees. Tremors rolled through her twitching, unsteady frame as she raised her head at Lori. A bright trail of blood oozed out of her right temple and shimmered in the dim room, but the viciousness in her stare was unwavering. Her chest heaved with low, guttural breaths as she began crawling towards her sister.

“Mmrrgh,” Luna grumbled. Thin ropes of drool idly swung from her slack jaw as she struggled to produce words. “Ouch… ouchies. You huwt baby’s head, Lowi…”

Lori silently stared down her target as it waywardly shambled towards her. Hefting the instrument high into the air, she brought it down squarely atop Luna’s head. The teenager collapsed upon herself and erupted into a spasmodic writhing. Her limbs flailed about sporadically for a few moments before devolving into occasional twitches. Lori stared at Luna’s near-motionless body for about half a minute before roughly kicking her in the side, the force of which turned her onto her back. Luna’s chest rose and fell shallowly as infrequent spasms pulsed through her otherwise limp body. Her eyes were glassy and one seemed to have been dislocated, causing her to appear to be staring in two separate directions. Lori struggled to look through them, to search for any lingering traces of her little sister that could still be behind them. She knew this was completely pointless, though; whatever human presence within that pitiable husk had died off long before this.

Lori was pulled from her concentration when a long, hissing stream of air squirted against the packed interior of Luna’s diaper. This soon gave way to a muted splattering of liquid and mushy solids. The area covering her crotch and ass began to swell and darken as the waste gradually pooled and congealed within their plastic prison. As soon as all of the waste managed to spill forth from Luna’s body, the stench was immediate. Tears scalded Lori’s eyes as the fumes singed her nostrils, reeking of rotten meat and motor oil. As she wiped at her eyes to clear her vision, a small gasp of air came from Luna’s direction. Luna’s wall-eyed gaze wasn’t directed at Lori at all, but the corners of her mouth quivered into what looked like a mocking grin.

“Ooo…. oopsies…” Luna’s words bubbled past the frothy mixture of saliva and blood that had pooled within her mouth. “B-baby… needs diapee change…”

She seemed ready to say more, but Lori swung the guitar squarely into Luna’s face before she could get the chance. Luna’s body remained motionless after that, and the only sound coming from her body was the gradual fizzling of her excrement as it settled and spread about within the confines of her diaper. The impact left a gruesome, bloody dent along the middle of her face, shattering her nose and two of her top teeth. The sight caused Lori to drop the guitar and turn away, trembling in place as her body temperature instantly dropped. She was shaken from her revulsion by the sound of pattering footsteps bouncing throughout the hallway and halting inside the room. Lori turned around to see Lisa, whose large glasses magnified her already enlarged eyes.

“Sweet mother of mercy!” Lisa gasped. “Lori! Look at all this contaminated fluid you’ve strewn about! Are you attempting to transform this room into a potential biohazard?!”

Lori wordlessly shifted her gaze down to the blood that pooled underneath Luna’s destroyed head. Her face blanched once she noticed the several scattered flecks that dotted the floor and walls, as well as the large stain that coated most of the guitar. Before Lori could respond, Lisa interrupted her with a prolonged sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I advise that you evacuate the area to avoid any risk of possible infection. I’ll get to work on sanitation once I’ve properly dealt with Luna’s remains.”

Lori’s legs felt like noodles as she shambled past Luna’s body and nearly stumbled out of the room. Her heart rattled against her ribcage as she huddled against one of the walls of the hallway, fervently checking her clothes to make sure that no blood got on them. She hardly noticed Lisa passing in front of her before slinking into Luna’s room, carrying a large, black body bag. Even though the door was mostly closed, the rustles and crinkles of the bag and the warbling hiss the zipper made as it was sealed left little to the imagination. Lisa soon emerged from the room with her cargo in tow, dragging behind her and creating a low, scratching noise as it chafed against the hallway rug. Lori was about to offer her sister some help, but she decided against it once she saw how surprisingly effective Lisa was at moving the heavy load by herself.

“So… what is it that you’re going to do with her?” Lori asked.

The upturned end of the body bag fell to the floor with a wet thump as Lisa turned to address Lori. “If you’re truly interested in the procedures involved in this, I’ll be glad to oblige. Since I obviously cannot dispose of a cadaver of this size in one piece, I’ll be taking it into the lavatory to dismember it. Once that is complete, I’ll haul the sections into the basement, where I store drums of several acidic chemicals that I find too hazardous to keep in my own dwelling. You will find that these vats will make short work of any organic substance over the course of a few days. After that period, what was once Luna will have been reduced to nothing more than a liquefied, biohazardous sludge.”

Lori grimaced. “That’s literally the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“I suppose that means you do not wish to witness the procedure?” Lisa punctuated this question with a small smirk.

Lori made a disgusted noise as she stood up and stormed down the hallway, not wanting to dignify Lisa’s sick humor with a response. Her bedroom door slammed behind her with a resounding thud as she retreated into her bed. She didn’t even bother to change out of her clothes before pulling the covers up and over her head. Even though her task was completed, she hadn’t yet achieved the closure she was expecting. In fact, she struggled to feel any sort of sensation aside from the aftertaste of residual vomit that still stung her mouth and throat.

The thunderous torrent of water gushing from the bathtub faucet caused the wall adjoining the bathroom to vibrate, shattering the relative silence within the bedroom. Through the noise, Lori could hear a faint grinding from the same room, as if someone was trying to saw through a side of beef. Once the realization hit her, she whimpered as she pulled her pillow around her head and clamped it over her ears. It didn’t help in muffling most of the noise, but she was still able to drift off in an uneasy sleep, all while silently praying that whatever Lisa was doing in there would be done before the rest of the family returned home.


	8. Epilogue

“Wake up, Lori. For the love of God, woman, wake up!”

Lori’s eyelids blinked rapidly as she was shaken awake by someone grabbing her by the shoulders. Her bleary vision and the darkness of the room rendered the stranger practically invisible to her. Their feet pressed against both sides of her body as they stood over her; whoever it was had to be very short.

“Lori!” the stranger said again in a frantic whisper. This time, Lori was able to recognize the voice.

“Lisa?” Lori asked. “Is that you?”

“Quiet!” Lisa hissed. “Do you want to wake up Leni?”

“Leni’s here?” Lori asked again, this time keeping her voice low. “When did everybody come back?”

“Approximately two hours after you went to bed.” Lisa’s facial expression slowly came into focus as Lori’s vision adjusted to the darkness. All color had drained from her face, and her forehead glistened from the film of fresh sweat that coated it.

“Lisa, you look awful. Did they–” Lori paused as she considered the unthinkable. All moisture evaporated from her mouth, which made her next words sound raspy and brittle. “Were you spotted at all?”

“Negative. The procedure was a success. I had just finished sealing off the last of Luna’s remains inside the vats once our relations returned. I then proceeded upstairs to the abandoned bedroom and eliminated all traces of biomaterial from the area. Nobody bothered to enter, so my work was uninterrupted. Afterwards, I returned to my own domicile for some much needed rest…”

Lisa’s gaze slowly drifted to the side as her words trailed off. She brought her hands together, her fingers fumbling against each other while she nervously muttered incoherent nothings under her breath. Now it was Lori’s turn to take her sister by the shoulders and shake her back to reality.

“Focus, Lisa. Tell me what happened.”

Lisa blinked a few times and inhaled deeply. “When I entered, I noticed immediately that my drawers and cabinets had all been opened, and their contents in disarray. The work of an intruder while I was away! I then set to work on taking inventory to see if had been robbed.”

“And were you?”

Lisa’s eyes hardened behind her glasses. “The arm is gone, Lori. Someone in this house has Lily’s arm.”


End file.
